Volvo’s new heavy-duty electric range: built through partnership

Partnerships with customers, bodybuilders, transport buyers and legislators are crucial to effectively launching electric trucks.

For Volvo, electrification has changed how trucks are developed, sold and used. It has also emphasized the need for even closer collaboration.

“This isn’t a journey that we as an industry can do by ourselves,” says Jonas Nordquist, director of strategic directions, Volvo Trucks. “We depend on other stakeholders: politicians, customers, transport buyers, energy providers, bodybuilders and charge point operators. Through these early open discussions with partners, we can find new value and potential and solve problems faster to make a difference.”

That’s where Jonas believes Volvo has an advantage. With eight years’ experience in electric – and millions of miles of real-life use – these conversations and collaborations started a long time ago. And they are partnerships that have shaped the electric Volvo trucks on the road today and those still to come.

Customer partnerships

With electric trucks, each application brings its own requirements around range, charging, payload and productivity. That’s why the importance of working closely with customers to create solutions that fit real operations has become a core part of Volvo’s experience.

Through early customer collaborations, Volvo has developed and tested specific solutions in realworld operations, often through pilots and prototype vehicles.

These customer projects aren’t isolated experiments. They are learnings that are shared across Volvo’s global network and fed back into product development, helping refine trucks, services and systems over time – and creating proven configurations that other customers with similar needs can adopt.

“The collaboration with customers on electric trucks is a mutual learning that everyone can benefit and see value from,” says Jonas.

“You can go into every customer and every application and find unique learnings,” he adds. “That’s where a lot of the development comes from.”

Working with bodybuilders

Electrification has exposed the limits of the old way of working, where the trucks and bodies were developed separately. So, partnerships with bodybuilders have become crucial to how trucks are built.

“Some things that were taken for granted – bodybuilders doing their thing and us doing ours – don’t work anymore,” Jonas says. “Now we are working much closer together.

“With electromobility, we sometimes need to work three years ahead,” he explains. “That’s why we invite bodybuilders to co-develop earlier.”

Working together earlier and closer has helped unlock benefits beyond the drivetrain itself, from better energy use and lower noise to improved integration and payload. It has also made Volvo more selective.

“For a fruitful and beneficial partnership, it’s essential to share the same vision on the potential of electrification,” Jonas adds.

Energy planning

The reality of electric trucks is that, unlike diesel, they only work when the whole setup is in place: the truck, the energy supply, the charging infrastructure and the assignment planning.

What Volvo has learned on its electrification journey is that transformation doesn’t happen in isolation. “We need to be more active across the value chain,” says Jonas.

Progress also varies widely between countries. Infrastructure, incentives and rules are often set locally. “It might make sense to run electric trucks in one country but not in another,” he adds.

That makes working with public bodies, energy providers and charging partners an important part of enabling electric transport, especially for fleets operating across borders.

“There are many things to think about,” adds Jonas. “Charging infrastructure is a key one. Once you move beyond a single truck, you need permits, grid upgrades and facility changes and that takes time.

“We also need to talk to charge point operators to make sure there are charging solutions available in the right locations,” he says. “We work a lot in publicly funded projects to make sure electromobility works locally and across borders.”

Selling electric trucks

These changes affect Volvo’s own teams too. Sales teams now need to understand charging, energy availability and daily operations and explain new solutions with confidence.

“They need to stand in front of customers and say: ‘I know this looks different, but it will earn you more,’” Jonas adds. “And we need to explain: if you have this operation, you should buy this truck; if you have another operation, you should buy a different powertrain.”

After many years of real-world use, Volvo’s view is clear: we have learned to support our customers to make electric work in their reality.

Find out more about Volvo’s electric truck range here.